Semana Santa

So I took a two week break from the blog during my spring vacation, and quite the vacation it was. For the first week my parents and brother came down during Isaac’s sprink break. My parents and I thought it was a fantastic week, Isaac may not exactly share the sentiment as he was sick for most of the week with altitude sickness and sinus trouble; Fanta in a glass bottle, essentially liquid gold, really makes up for a lot though, even altitude sickness.

We started off in Quito at beautiful converted mansion where we stayed for three days. After exploring Quito a little on Sunday, my family got to meet my host family on Monday without me to translate, which seemed interesting for both of them. At my house we also made some Ecuadorian friends, cousins of my host family, who were fantastic tour guides for the entire week.

(Converted hotel mansions are the way to go)

Tuesday through Thursday we slept on top of a mountain.

(View from where we stayed)

Thursday we returned to Quito to stay in Centro Historico, or the Colonial center of Quito. On Friday we got to see one of the most spectacular, disturbing, and interesting things I have ever seen, the Good Friday procession through Centro Historico. Thousands upon thousands of pecadores, or sinners, strolled through the streets of Centro Historico for a good 4 or 5 hours wearing KKK like(but with no actual association) purple outfits, some without shoes, some with sharp cactuses strapped to their backs, others wrapped in barb wire, you know, typical Good Friday attire. The procession was really the highlight of the week and as someone that is not catholic, really showed me how powerful religious belief can be.

After my parents left on Sunday, I headed to the beach for a few days to smoke some South American cigars and enjoy the Pacific Ocean.

It was great having my family here and I’m so happy they were able to come down and that we got to share a week in Ecuador together.

Beans, Corn, and Moscos

This week I was lucky enough to spend a large amount of time in Lumbisi, the rural community about 20 minutes from where I live. For a photography project I decided to try and spend some time working and taking photos in the fields of Lumbisi. Our program director was nice enough to introduce me to a wonderful women, Nelly, who has lived in Lumbisi for all her life and was more than happy to take me around to some of her fields and show me how agriculture is done, Lumbisi style.

Nelly allowed me to accompany her to her various plots of land. In her fields we picked plenty of beans and corn and fought of plenty of Moscos, the Ecuadorian equivalent of mosquitoes.

(No they're not Jelly Bellys, just really cool beans)

I really can’t describe how beautiful these fields are, or the walk to the fields, but there is something very calming about going to a plot of land that has been passed down for hundreds of years and getting so see a master of agriculture at work. Over the last few generations, Nelly and her family have obviously perfected their growing system because everything I have learned about in terms of sustainable agriculture at U of I is done in Lumbisi. For instance, to avoid erosion each stalk of corn gets its own mound of dirt so that the ground is not level and Nelly also uses Multi Cropping, in which she grows a bean plant around a corn stalk.

To say I was humbled by all this is quite the understatement. How fast and hard Nelly works for a women with grandkids is unbelievable. Our walk back home can sum up her wonder woman like level of fitness. My bookbag was filled to the brim with about fifteen ears of corn and a bag or three of beans. Her bag was filled with about thirty ears of corns and ten or so bags of beans, so give or take she had roughly three times the amount of weight on her back that I had on mine. As we started our hour walk home, Nelly, roughly four feet tall, machete in hand, dominated the mountain paths with ease, while I the relatively fit, or at least I thought so, six foot tall American was ready to fall down and die. As we reached her house Nelly let out a little laugh as she threw down her hundred pound bag of vegetables and I fell down on the grass gasping for air.

It was an amazing week and I really feel privileged that I had the opportunity to experience a taste of rural life in Ecuador.

Oh yeah and my family is arriving in Ecuador tomorrow night for a week long spring break! I’m sure Peter, Annette, and Isaac will have some great adventures to share with you when they get back.

MoneyMoneyMoney

Sorry for missing last week, I was on a comic book rough draft deadline.

When I was deciding where to study abroad one of the first things mentioned about a program was the cost. Obviously, programs in Europe were much more expensive, due to the exchange rate and higher cost of living, than programs in Latin America or Africa. Money was not the deciding factor in my decision to come to Ecuador; however, the fact that USFQ is cheaper than U of I was definitely a plus.

Not only is the tuition cheaper, but the cost of living is also dramatically cheaper than the United States. Prices, mainly on food, have really played a big role in my experience here, as capitalistic as that may sound. I just can’t get over the fact that I can get 5 ice cream bars for a dollar or a pint of beer .75 cents. Yeah, I drink a lot of beer here, but come on its .75 cents. So I figured I’d do some price comparisons of things here and in the US.

It seems that as a general rule of thumb, food is a third of the price it is in the US.
Ride on the bus- .25 cents. Eat your hearts out Chicagoans.
Movie- 3.00 to 5.00 dollars.
Eggs- .10 cents apiece, we rarely buy a carton of a dozen.
Bannanas- .5 cents apiece.
A bottle of water- .30 cents
Fresh baked roll- .10 to 15 cents
Fresh baked deserts- .20 to .50 cents. I pretty much try to eat something deserty from one of the various bakeries on my walk home every day.
Heres the best one- A regular chocolate and vanilla ice cream bar- .25 cents, the amount of ice cream I eat here is really kind of gross.

Since pretty much everything I buy is food or beer I make out like a bandit in Ecuador, but for a family that has to buy clothes and appliances, both of which are equal to or more expensive than US prices, I think cost of living gets a little closer to that of the US.

As a well off American I can rave about these low prices, but the reason the prices are so low is that if they were any higher many people would not be able to eat. I don’t have an official source, but a few people have told me that the monthly minimum wage in Ecuador is 250.00, not weekely, 250.00 dollars a month. I make about 250.00 a month in the US from working 12 hours a week, and most of the people making minimum wage in Ecuador work 12 hours a day, just to put it in perspective. So as my host mom told me for a family with 250.00 dollars of monthly income a dollar of bread a day is an important purchase. So while I may be gloating about my ice cream and beer consumption, I realize that I am very lucky to be in the situation I am here.

Cuenca

Wow. Late Again. My group went to Cuenca for the weekend so I figured I’d wait.

Before going to Cuenca my host family excitedly told me that Cuenca was a magical city where people sing when they talk and love to dance at all times of the day. While Cuenca didn’t turn out to be a real life musical, I can easily see how anyone who has been to Cuenca remembers it like living in Singing In the Rain for a few days. Cuenca is completely filled with perfectly preserved colonial buildings in one of the biggest historical centers in the world. And while Cuenca is a very modern city it has a feel more similar to a beach town than a large city—everyone and everything seemed very at ease.

The group and I were lucky enough to fly to Cuenca, a thirty minute flight instead of a ten hour bus ride, on Saturday morning. For the rest of Saturday we walked around and just enjoyed the beautiful historic section of Cuenca. It’s really impossible to describe how beautiful building after building was so I’ll just put up a bunch of photos.

An interesting Cuenca hat fact- The Panama Hat is not from Panama, it's from Cuenca. The world famous hat was exported through Panama and used heavily by the workers who constructed the canal, thereby giving it the association with Panama and the decieving name.

Cuenca also had the largest and most awe inspiring church I've ever seen. It was about a block long, half a block wide, and the inside was completely made out of marble.

Sunday we headed to some Incan ruins, which were quite fun.

Cuenca looked and felt like no where I had ever been in before and I am counting the days till I return to this beautiful city.

Altitude Schmaltitude

Hey everyone sorry for being late again. I knew that this weekend my group was going to the Teleferico in Ecuador so I figured I’d wait and hopefully have some cool pictures---

A lot of what I read about Quito before arriving constantly mentioned the altitude. At 2850 m or roughly 8550 feet above sea level, Quito is quite the jump, a high one, from Chicago’s altitude at about 586 feet above sea level.

(The sign said don´t run. I had trouble walking that high up.)

Many of the books and articles mention the negatives of this change in elevation, specifically the prospect of altitude sickness, usually a mild headache. What the books fail to mention is that Ecuador’s constantly changing altitude results in some of the most spectacular views in South America.

(Looking east towards Quito and Cumbaya)

Today going to the Teleferico, a ski resort like contraption that shuttles people up to the top of Pichincha Mountain, I probably changed 6000 ft in elevation in about two hours, which, I think, is pretty amazing. From the top of Pichinca Mountain I was able to see not only Quito and Cumbaya, but also see for hundreds and hundreds and miles into the distance. As much as I love these breathtaking views, they also make me feel incredibly insignificant. Being able to see for hundreds of miles, with cites in front, even taller mountains in back, and literally being surrounded by clouds, is an unbelievably fantastic experience that really reminds me of my tiny place in this huge world.

(The Teleferico)

(Standing at the same level of the clouds is great)

So while I have a killer headache after returning from the Teleferico, I’ll take some altitude sickness and standing on top of a mountain over a pain free head and the plains of the Midwest any day.

Quito

This past week was Carnival, resulting in only two days of school. While most of the Illinois group went to various beaches throughout Ecuador I got to stay in Quito because of some confusion about a photo project. While I was initially a little upset that I didn’t get to travel to somewhere else in Ecuador there sure are worse ways to spend a week than walking around one of Latin America’s most beautiful cities.

Having explored much of Chicago over the years it was really interesting to walk around some of the more residential neighborhoods of Quito and compare the two cities. A few tidbits I noticed about Quito:
-There are a lot of dead end streets.

-Every house is gated in. The level of security varies from broken glass on top of the gate to a 24- hour security guard.

- The pollution is horrible. Every large city has pollution issues, but the high number of 2 cycle engines and unmaintained buses make Quito quite the health hazard during rush hour.

- Public transportation is popular (for 25 cents a ride why wouldn’t it be?)

- The mix of the upper class and very lower class is much more out in the open than in Chicago. While downtown Chicago can be quite the mix of the two, in general neighborhoods are somewhat separated by wealth in Chicago. Not so in Quito. The very very rich live directly next to the very very poor. It was interesting to see the contrast of a six year old in tattered clothes selling gum next to a business man in a tailored suit.
-Centro Historico, the colonial district of Quito, is one of the most beautiful and architecturally distinct neighborhoods I’ve ever seen. The brick paved streets, the constant smell of incense, and the overwhelming amount of fantastic 19th century ornate buildings really make it feel like you’re in a movie. Oh yeah, its also filled to the brim with people selling homemade donuts. I ate a lot of donuts this past week.

(A Carnival street comedian)

(A residential area close to Centro Historico)

After my week of exploring it’s fair to say that I really love Quito—and no not just because of the donuts. It’s a fantastic city with a lot of offer, I can’t wait to walk around and explore more of it.

(La Parque Almeda)

Mindo Lindo

Sorry for being a day late. Last weekend was another fantastic group excursion to Mindo in the Pichincha provence of Ecuador. Mindo is about two hours away from Quito and as is known as a cloud forest because everyday the town gets filled with fog around 3 pm. As a Star Wars fan the second I heard cloud forest I thought of Cloud City, but alas, Lando was nowhere to be found in Mindo. I guess I’ll just have to wait a few more months for the comic-con for my yearly Lando Callrissian encounter. Mindo is also quite the tourist trap. The town is filled to the brim with hostels and gringos. But despite this heavy tourist influence Mindo still manages to be a very beautiful town.




The weekend was packed to the brim with great little outings, a majority of them that would not be allowed in the US due to safety concerns. After the two-hour drive on Saturday we settled into our hostel, which an unbelievable hummingbird garden, and went river tubing. Tubing in Ecuador consists of sitting on top of eight tied together inner tubes while hurtling down a raging river. You have the help of two unbelievably strong men essentially running through the rapids along side the tubes while pushing off rocks and navigating the currents to get everyone as wet as possible. Later Saturday the power went out, leaving Mindo covered in the warm glow of hundreds of candles. Playing dominoes on the deck with the candle’s fireplace like glow illuminating the room while hearing the zoom of the hummingbirds a few feet away was a blast.

(the hammocks were fantastic)

( there were always at least 20 hummingbirds flying around)

Sunday morning was filled with zip-lining. Flying over 200 tall foot trees upside down was fantastic. We also stopped at a national park with a few beautiful waterfalls and a great hike. While all these adventures were fun, the most fun I had all weekend was riding back to Mindo from the national park on top of a bus. Rarely have I experienced such a sensory overload. The lukewarm wind, the smell of burning leaves, the low rumble of the bus, were all aided by having to dodge jagged branches that were sticking out from the side of the mountain.


After all the hikes and all the thrilling adventures in Mindo, settling home to watch the last quarter of the Super Bowl palled in comparison. I can’t wait to travel to some of the other towns famous for their outdoor sports. Ecuador truly is the country of outdoor adventures and, as I discovered in Mindo, sore calves.